Marijuana plants are seen in an indoor cultivation in Montevideo (PHOTO by Andres Stapff/REUTERS)

Uruguay, that little known small country in South America, is set to make history this Tuesday by legally allowing its citizens to grow, buy and smoke marijuana.

In an interview with Brazilian daily Folha de São Paulo published a few days ago, Uruguay's President José Mujica, known as the ‘poorest president in the world,’ defended his push to legalize the limited government sale of marijuana, calling on foreign governments to support the project.

“We ask the world to help us create this experience,” Mujica told the newspaper during an interview at his farm outside Montevideo. “It will allow us to adopt a socio-political experiment to address the serious problem of drug trafficking (...). The effect of the drug traffic is worse than the drug.”

The government-sponsored bill was approved by 16-13 votes in Uruguay's Senate today.

The pioneering government-sponsored bill establishes state regulation of the cultivation, distribution and consumption of marijuana and is aimed at wresting the business from criminals.

Cannabis consumers would be allowed to buy a maximum of 40 grams (1.4 ounces) each month from state-regulated pharmacies as long as they are over the age of 18 and registered on a government database that will monitor their monthly purchases.

Uruguayans would also be allowed to grow up to six plants of marijuana in their homes a year, or as much as 480 grams (about 17 ounces). They could also set up smoking clubs of 15 to 45 members that could grow up to 99 plants per year.

The bill, which opinion polls show is unpopular, passed the lower chamber of Congress in July and is expected to easily pass the Senate on the strength of the ruling coalition's majority.

According to Castaldi's report, Uruguay's government decision to legalize marijuana as a way to combat drug trafficking and the violence spawned by it is being watched closely by other Latin American nations that struggle with the same problem.

The subject was also the theme of the 2012 Brazilian documentary Breaking The Taboo, which is narrated by Morgan Freeman, John Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal, and uncovers the UN sanctioned war on drugs, charting its origins and its devastating impact worldwide on countries such as the U.S., Colombia, Russia, Mexico and Brazil.

With exclusive access to the big players of The Global Commission on Drug Policy, the film features prominent statesmen including former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, who press for the urgent need to break the political taboo and expose the biggest failure of global policy in the last 50 years.

The UN sanctioned war on drugs has been raging for more than 40 years. Over $2.5 trillion has been spent, millions of people imprisoned, and countless people killed. Still, the illegal drug market is worth over $320 billion per year, drugs are cheaper and more prevalent than ever before, and in a growing number of countries drug cartels are a major threat to national security.

While rich countries like the Netherlands allow the sale of marijuana in coffee shops, Uruguay is actually the first nation to legalize the whole chain, from growing the plant to buying and selling its leaves. As George Soros put it, Uruguay's decision is an "experiment" that could provide an alternative to the failed U.S.-led policies of the long "war on drugs."

Here’s the official trailer of Breaking The Taboo, which is available on iTunes, and is certainly a must watch: